INNOVATION OF THE YEAR: VOTE COMPASS

The 2013 Crikey Media Awards were held on 19 December and Vote Compass won the prize for Innovation of the Year. Crikey describedVote Compass as a “major initiative that allowed voters to explore how their policy preferences lined up with those of the major parties … 1.2 million Aussies used the tool, which delivered a fascinating and useful pool of data”. Used for the first time in Australia during the 2013 election campaign, Vote Compass was developed by political scientists at the University of Toronto in partnership with Dr. Aaron Martin and Nicholas Reece from the Melbourne School of Government, the University of Sydney and the ABC. It enables voters to compare their views with the platforms of political parties, while also building an expansive database of public opinion for academic research.

Hearing about the award, Mr Reece said, “I think we can take some small satisfaction from being part of a project that is widely recognised as engaging citizens in politics and policy issues in a new way”.